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AP® Latin passage guide · Pliny, Letters 10.37 and 10.90
Pliny, Letters 10.37 and 10.90: The Aqueducts of Bithynia
What happens
As governor of Bithynia-Pontus, Pliny reports to the emperor Trajan on two water supplies.
In 10.37 the people of Nicomedia have spent over three million sesterces on an aqueduct that was left unfinished and then pulled down, and two hundred thousand more on a second that was also abandoned. Pliny has found a pure spring and suggests bringing the water on arches, reusing the old stone and some brick, but asks Trajan to send a water engineer or architect so that the mistake is not repeated.
In 10.90 the colony of Sinope is short of water. Good water could be brought from sixteen miles away, but there is a stretch of soft, doubtful ground near the source, which Pliny has had surveyed at little cost. The money will be found if Trajan allows the work for the health and pleasure of a very thirsty colony.
Grammar to look for
- Impersonal passive and the passive voice: rūrsus in alium ductum ērogāta sunt CC, “again two hundred thousand were spent on another aqueduct”
- Gerundive of obligation: aliqua pars ut mihi vidētur testāceō opere agenda erit, “some part, as it seems to me, will have to be done in brick”
- Present passive infinitive after vidētur: ab sextō decimō mīliāriō posse perdūcī, “seems able to be brought from the sixteenth milestone”
- Indirect question with an: an recipere et sustinēre opus possit, “whether it can take and bear the work”
Style
- Tricolon with asyndeton: imperfectus adhūc omissus dēstrūctus etiam est. Unfinished, abandoned, even demolished: the waste piles up.
- Paired abstract nouns: et ūtilitātem operis et pulchritūdinem. Usefulness and beauty, aimed at pleasing the emperor.
- Flattery: saeculō tuō esse dignissimam. The project is worthy of Trajan's age.
Themes to think about
- How a governor writes to an emperor: deference, detail and asking permission
- Waste and accountability in provincial building projects
- Roman engineering and the value of experts
Practise this passage
The Aqueducts of Bithynia is a self-grading escape room built from this passage's own vocabulary, with a grammar lock on the passive and the gerundive of obligation. It takes about one lesson.
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More passage guides
- Pliny, Letters 6.16: The Death of Pliny the Elder
- Pliny, Letters 6.20: Pliny's Escape from Misenum
- Pliny, Letters 7.27: The Haunted House
- Pliny, Letters 10.5–7: A Favour for Pliny's Doctor
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